The Farber Foundation Announces Grantees in First Round of Funding

Documentary Film, Guest Performances Among Projects Winning Support

The Farber Foundation has announced the recipients of its first round of grant funding.

The foundation supports the work of U.S.-based nonprofit cultural organizations by providing strategic funding for initiatives to explore Cuban art and culture, and to present it to broad audiences.

“Cuban art and culture is vibrant, sophisticated, and fully engaged with the world at large,” says art collector and philanthropist Howard Farber, who, with his wife Patricia, established The Farber Foundation earlier this year. “Our mission at the Fundación is to help that dynamic cultural activity gain the attention it deserves.”

For its initial funding round in 2010, The Farber Foundation received 90 proposals from organizations around the country, including museums, community arts groups, and small-press publishers. Proposed projects ranged from panel discussions to major motion pictures.

The six projects funded in the 2010 grant cycle include:

Afro Latin Jazz Alliance. To support the participation of the Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra—led by the Alliance’s artistic director, Grammy-winning pianist and composer Arturo O’Farrill—in the 26th edition of the Havana Plaza Jazz Festival in Havana, December 16-19, 2010. The trip will be the subject of a documentary film celebrating Chico O’Farrill’s legacy and the opportunity for rich cultural exchange that this visit represents.

Ajna Films. In support of the documentary film Unfinished Spaces: Cuba’s Architecture of Revolution, which recounts the history of the National Art Schools in Havana, whose three original architects were invited back to complete the project almost fifty years after they began it in 1961.

Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). For the Si Cuba Festival, to support the participation of the Ballet Folklorico Cutumba of Santiago de Cuba, Oriente province.

Center For Cuban Studies. For a five-week lecture series on Cuban contemporary art by artists, critics, and collectors.

Cuban Artists Fund (Rockefeller Brothers Fund). To support the participation of individual members of the New York City Ballet in the 22nd International Ballet Festival in Havana.

Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts. In support of a residency for artist Eduardo Hernández as a visiting scholar from Cuba.

About The Farber Foundation Founders Howard and Patricia Farber:
Howard and Patricia Farber have been actively involved in international culture for over forty years as both art collectors and patrons. Having assembled major collections of American modernist painting and contemporary Chinese art, they turned their focus to contemporary Cuban art after a visit to the island in 2001. The Farber Collection, their holdings of contemporary Cuban art, is among the largest and most in-depth in North America. The Farber Foundation also sponsors Cuban Art News (cubanartnews.org), a nonprofit website focusing on Cuban art and culture worldwide.